When Swatch dropped its new and incredibly enigmatic advertisement in some of the world’s largest news papers on September 1, it had everyone asking questions: Is this a product launch? A watch collaboration? Perhaps Swatch is rebranding as a luxury water company?
On September 4, these questions were answered by way of a Swatch x Blancpain collaboration reveal via IG, although the specifics are yet to be announced.
Swatch went to put the thought out there while simultaneously taking great pains to keep its intent incredibly obscure.
The only way you’d have seen Swatch’s original teaser, had you not seen Highsnobiety’s photo of The Frankfurter Allgemeine‘s inside pages above, was by skimming through some of the world’s largest newspapers where Swatch took out sparse two-page spreads in September 1 issues.
HighsnobietyWe’re talking publications as big as Japan’s Nikkei and America’s New York Times: Swatch is making a serious push
All for images of water and a very minimal Swatch logo that only offered the letter “S,” date (September 9, 2023), and a curiously blank space that suggested another company or person’s initial ought to be there.
Note the presence of an “x,” as in “Swatch x ______.” Curious. Well, we now know that Blancpain will be occupying the aforementioned blank space. But with what?
Considering that Swatch sprung its OMEGA collaboration, the MoonSwatch, upon the world with or expectations of that these would generate, seems likely that Swatch is taking precautionary measures before rolling out another big collaboration.
You don’t go to effort this great for the launch of any old timepiece. Either Swatch is debuting a major new watch or an equally huge collaboration and we’re leaning towards the latter given the aforementioned details.
We don’t have much else to go on besides the suspiciously empty space and the water, though. Perhaps that’s enough: we’re likely talking about a watch that can get wet. A diving watch?
If so, we may be looking at the next evolution of the OMEGA x Swatch MoonSwatch? Perhaps the next MoonSwatches won’t be MoonSwatches at all, but WaterSwatches.
Then again, the MoonSwatch’s shape comes from OMEGA’s inimitable Speedmaster. Could the OMEGA x Swatch Seamaster be next?
From the outset rumors were that Swatch could be linking with another imprint within the Swatch Group. Labels like Longines and Breguet, which produces the French Navy-inspired Marine watch series, were mentioned.
On the flip side, Hamilton and Tissot, two labels that make relatively affordable dive watches that could expand upon the MoonSwatch’s approachable nature, were also touted.
But, according to watch snobs, it was particularly likely that Swatch was set to partner with Blancpain, the luxury watchmaker famed for its signature Fifty Fathoms diving timepiece, which is celebrating a big anniversary in 2023.
“The logo on the Moonswatch has the shape of the crown on the Speedmaster and the shape of this logo has the crown of the Fifty Fathoms,” one watch obsessive in a breathy, single-sentence gallop. “Plus it’s the 70th Anniversary this year and prior to releasing the Moonswatch last year, Nick Hayek Jr. said they were debating between making a Fifty Fathoms or Speedmaster in BioCeramic and went with the Speedy first so it only makes sense that this is the FF.”
Only makes sense!
This article was first published on September 1 and updated on September 4.
